Tell us all a bit about your decent and ancestry. Who were your ancestors? How do they affect your spiritual pracitices? Do you pray to them? Do you worship their gods? What ways do you remember them? ETC. Answer those questions or just write what you want, they were just suggestions. Let us know, show your pride, and let your ancestors know you remeber them.
Wonderful thread My ancestry, and the pride I take in it, is represented in my name. Sage Cerridwen Ingram Ingram is my actual last name, so that's obvious. I physically resemble that side of my family and am a Daddy's girl. So it gives a link to my immediate past (also just really like it). I consider Cerridwen my patron goddess. She represents all the mothers of my past (indeed my own mother has Welsh heritage), also the creativity and wisdom they have passed on. Sage is just who I am, an English word pure and simple. We all came from nature, and are growing, so it makes a good metaphor. This is the name I have chosen for myself, rather than on my birth certificate and all. Really long complicated story there. Who were your ancestors? Well I can't really name names (am working on it, with geneology research). Do know that my paternal side is Scottish, way back centuries ago. My paternal Grandmother's family are Scottish too. My maternal Grandfather's family are Welsh, through ancestry and apparently most still live in Wales. Everyone else is English, far as I know. How do they affect your spiritual practices? I definetly stick very faithfully to the Celtic aspects of paganism. Have read around other mythologies and practises, but they never had quite the same resonance for me personally. Would feel a little dishonest to take up something else, and that I could never quite do it justice. I may have seen Gladiator, and been to Sorrento, but that doesn't teach me what really matters/ed to the Romans and what their dieties and worship truly reprsented. Where as with the Celtic spirituality I can see those magical plants growing, visit sacred sites, and feel echoes of it in our modern culture. Greatly admire the Celtic culture and enjoy learning about it from a historical perspective too [they would never forgive me for worshipping Roman Gods, fraternising with the enemy and all]. Do you pray to them? Not directly, though will take time to remember them and light a candle for them at Samhain. I try to learn from them, and thank them for those lessons. Do you worship their Gods? Well that depends on your definition. My immediate family/ancestors are Christian, have obviously said thanks but no thanks to their God. They don't seem to mind. Going further back, yes, have thus far focuses mainly on the Welsh aspect. Though am researching the other dieties too. Cerridwen is my patron Goddess. What ways do you remember them? The ones I actually knew, like my Great grandfather, I will talk about with my family so we can keep their memory. Also try to spend quality time with my Grandparents and learn from them.
My remote ancestors were Scots - Irish my more immediate ancestors were southern red necks. I come from a long-term military family. I have had people that have died in every war this country ever had. As it says in Copperhead Road "they draft the white trash first around here anyway" I honor their memory and joined the U.S. Army and had my war. Since then I have worked to help people and to stop war. I was a medic in the army and I was a nurse after that for 35 years. Now my war has caught up with me and I live on you kind folks tax money. I hate war but I remember my forefathers with pride they mostly went to the wrong wars for the wrong reasons but they took the kings coin and did the kings work.
My mother is my Scots side, of the MacQueens of Skye. Immigrated to North Carolina and lived in the Appalachian mountains. The clan broke up when the English came down hard on the Highlanders, and the MacQueen clan scattered to America and New Zealand. They were a smaller clan of the MacDonalds, Lords of the Isles. My branch of MacQueens are of the same line as the Irish Sweeneys, of the Mad King Suibhne Gelt. There are the MacQueens of Argyll, but the are the decendants of Conn, different family all together. My father is Scots Welsh, I take after this side of my family the most physically. I am squat and broad with dark hair. I do have the blue eyes of the Milesian blood, but the Brytonic blood definatly shows in my body. My mothers family are all fair haired, blue eyed and tall. So i didnt get all that much of the Scots build. But my cheeks are red lol. I worship the gods of old, my ancestoral gods, which after christianity wasnt my "ancestors" gods, but still the ancestoral ones. It saddens me that people abandoned their peoples gods for a lie, and especially when its my people who did it too. I pray most to the Great Mother, but when it comes to ancestry specific deities, most of my thought and prayer goes to Father Bel, our first ancestor. I pray to Ogma some, he is the god I aspire most to be like. As to my ancestors themselves, i dont pray to them directly, with the exception of my granny and pawpaw. They are my most recently departed. I visit their graves, take them things. My pawpaws favorite chewing tobbacco was Levi Garrett, so every Samhain i empty a pack onto his grave, and take my granny a shot of scotch =) My main dedication to my ancestors are my tattoos. my right arm is dedicated to my ancestors, the forearm piece is a Bryton tattoo and the circles are for my granny, more to come in time. But they are all blue. I stretched my ears to be in touch with my farther back Alpine Indo-european ancestors, had they not done it, i never would have either. One thing that I am doing for my ancestors is learning their language. I am in the constant process of learning Gaeligh and was learning Cymraeg grammer for a while. I would hate to see Gaeligh die, Cymraeg is doing just fine lol.
Who were your ancestors? Irish (not sure if they were Celts or came over afterwords), Native American, either German or Scandinavian. How do they affect your spiritual pracitices? I accept some Native American beliefs, but that's about it. Do you pray to them? Not in a religious way. Sometimes I'll talk to my grandfather before I go to sleep, but that's not really praying, and I'm not sure he qualifies as an ancestor. Do you worship their gods? No. What ways do you remember them? I research a lot on Irish history, and I plan on visiting there at some point in the near future. My grandfather was unforgettable, and though he died when I was pretty young (7), I don't go a day without thinking about him or missing him like hell.
my 9-times great grandfather on my mother's side was miles standish, of the mayflower. the one that pricilla scorned for john adams. somehow i suspect the mayflower society wouldn't want me, though. on my dad's side, mixed celt. mainly irish. my grandfather was irish catholic, and worked for bootleggers during the prohibition, my grandmother was protestant and an unwed mother. the church would not allow them to marry, and so my grandfather walked away from his heritage, which caused one hell of a family stink in south boston at the time. my father bore the burden of this cultural rift, mainly by getting beat up by neighborhood bullies, which scarred him deep enough he has a blind intolerance for anything remotely catholic even to this day. far enough back, even on my mom's side, mainly celtic. the distant ones don't. i don't feel a strong attatchment to them, at all. i do have my grandfather's stubborn spirit, and ability to question injustice, even if it means chucking out everything i was raised to believe, which i've done, too, in a sense. he was something of a maverick, so i guess i have to count that as influence. but i don't feel a particularly strong attatchment to them, either. i've assholes on both sides of the family, and don't care to carry their torches. i blaze my own trail, thank you very much. (this is probably the source of the great difference between us, and why historical accuracy is pretty much irrelevant to my spirituality and practice. i just don't feel connected to my ancestors. at all.) beyond being grateful for the complex genetic soup that the unique "i" was stirred up out of, fuck no. no. i like celtic music and artwork, find the stories beautiful and inspiring, but feel no strong spiritual connection to them. at all. i have a lot of gods. pick one. i have a number of extra gods that i carry in my pocket, for emergencies. never know when you're going to need and extra god. i wear black on st. patrick's day, in solidarity for the "snakes". ETC.
I'm Scottish, Dutch, and a touch of German and Cherokee on my mom's side, and I feel nearly no connection to any of them. My mom's family really gets into the Scottish heritage, but I'm not really comfortable around them when they have the family reunion - for some reason large groups of people in tartan give me the creeps. I don't know much about the Dutch part really. A lot of those records were lost when the Germans attacked Rotterdam. And no one talks much about the German. If you put two and two together, you can probably guess why. I've only heard about the Cherokee one time. My gr. gr. grandmother told me about it when I was in my early teens. My grandmother overheard, and got furiously angry, so I didn't get the whole story. My dad's family are Romany. No records, and the last family member who remembered the trip to the US died when I was 8. But I take after and identify with the gypsy side of my heritage. I honor my ancestors by doing what my paternal grandmother was always telling me to do when I was growing up -- being myself. My family on both sides are characters, and we value a good strong streak of individuality (otherwise known as a stubborn streak ). I do talk to them, especially the ones who have gone on that I was lucky enough to know. I tell them about major events in my life, and all the little events in my boys' lives. I believe that they probably already know, but it keeps me in touch with them. And I tell my boys about them, as much as I know. I have scrounged up as many older pictures as I can find, and put names on as many of them as I could, and my older son and I sit and look through them at least once a month, trying to see where we got our eyes, cheekbones, noses, etc. We get to have fun and remember where we come from, not a bad combination.
My father's side are mainly English although there is Portuguese blood mixed in there, it's a bit hard tracking down my father's side as their aren't many of them and they don't stay in touch anyway. My mother's side is predominately Welsh, her father's line travels from South to North Wales. Her mother's side is a mixture of Welsh, Irish and Scottish. My mother's line of women had a slight medium gift, which only really came out during puberty and unfortunately none of them explored it more. I'm Welsh born and bred, so I have a natural affinity with my Welsh side, and strong patriotic pride! As to whether I worship their gods, I don't think they worshipped any other than the xtian god. Which I don't worship! Or any others to be honest. The only ancestory I follow is that of the ancients who worshipped Mother Earth. But I'm vague as to where I would've got that from
Well the oldest ancestor in my family was a Lenape Native American of Pennsylvania/New Jersey. Her name was Sarah Bright Star and married John Redstreake, a Finnish immigrant to America in the mid-1600's. So my last name is Redstreake, but I don't know much about my Finnish heritage. I'm not sure about my mom's side, though, because she was adopted, but there's more than likely some Cherokee there. I don't worship my ancestors, however I do respect them and honor them through Lenape ceremonies and through my dance and drumming/singing. I do in a way worship the Great Spirit as my Lenape ancestors did. I do follow Hinduism, but all religions lead to the same thing. Native religions have much in common with Hinduism. Thanks Heron for giving us the opportunity to share our cultural pride and heritage. Cool thread.
Who were your ancestors? The English, German, Irish, and Dutch. How do they affect your spiritual pracitices? I'm learning the ways of Traditional Anglo-saxon Witchcraft. I wouldn't say that it was interest in my ancestors that brought Traditional Witchcraft to my attention but it's definately interesting to study the different...um...paths they followed. Do you pray to them? It's a part of Traditional Witchcraft to feel "intimate" with the dead. Not like Intimate like a lot of people think of the word but comfortable associating with them. Do you worship their gods? My ancestors had a lot of gods before most of them were converted because they were from different parts of Europe. I do recognize the Horned God and the Queen of the Dead. What ways do you remember them? As people free from the chains of Judao-Christianity and a strong people.
Well, I'm a European mutt. From my dad's side, I get Irish and French (25% each). From mom's I get Austrian (25%), German (18.5%) and a bit of Dutch (6.5%). I also found out, looking at a family tree, that mixed in with the german is a bit of Prussian. I don't know if it was German Prussians or something else, but it seems that either way it's a very slight influence (pretty far back in the tree). As far as religion goes, it's not a big influence. I've always identified most with the Irish in me, my last name being Irish, but I never deeply studied Celtic religions. The only thing that I get from my heratige, spiritually, is a reverence for nature and her cycles. But that could come as much from my interest in Eastern religions, or just early exposure to camping, as from my studies of paganism. (our influences are rarely linear, right?) But lineage hasn't ever been much stressed in my family. I've always considered myself simply as an American, and try to see my heratige as human, not just some tribe here or there. We all, in the end (or rather, in the beginning), come from Africa.
Hmm. My family heritage is a source of inspiration and a source of strength I pull from. My mother's father was a geneologist who had an terminal illness he spent the final years of his life documenting our lineage and I was by his side. Days upon days spent logging names and labeling photos for future generations to learn he told me I was to be the keeper of knowledge for the others in the family. On my mothers side I am from the Brooke family of Irish descent. Who traveled to Holland and then by boat to Bermuda and finally ended up in the Appalachian region settling in West Virginia. On My fathers side I am German of the family Crank who migrated much later and settled in yes, you guessed it West Virginia. I have a deep documented Appalachian heritage which colors who I am. I still practice the traditional forms of weaving and spinning past to me by those powerful women who lived before me. Weaving for me is an active association to the past, meditative. I always approach my looms with reverence and never wear shoes in the room with them. I pray to the spirits of my family who have traveled before me I ask for their protection, strength and guidance. Growing up in the South I was raised in a christian home though my mother and grandmother emphazied using our gifts to connect with family spirits for comfort. I pray to the egyptain goddess Hathor who I associate with the most and aspire to be like. I pray mostly to the earth mother and also Isis who I call upon when I am in need of her guidance. My family past is a daily source of spritual inspiration which I covet.
Soaper, that was beautiful. Now I have been taken by your body, heart and mind. You, my sister, are breathtaking.
LOL.Thank you Heron I appreciated you kynd words. I am taken by both you and your wifes beauty. Thanks for letting me share.
Who were your ancestors? Native American(Cherokee), english and quite a bit of German. How do they affect your spiritual pracitices? I try to pray to my ancestors as much as possible. I have an alter set up to my Cherokee ancestors Do you pray to them? yes Do you worship their gods? The Cherokee (From what I know) worshiped a Great Spirit, which had many forms. So yes I do. What ways do you remember them? A trip through the woods, talking to my dad, rituals.
